President Saakashvili told his nominee for Prime Minister, Lado Gurgenidze, to maintain “permanent dialogue” with the population and “to translate” the country’s economic success in “a language understandable” to every citizen.

Saakashvili was speaking with Gurgenidze at a meeting aired live on TV. His comments come following opposition claims that his administration was totally out of touch and incapable of engaging in dialogue with the people.

Saakashvili also told Gurgenidze that he would have “a fresh mandate” to change the cabinet after the January 5 presidential elections.

Bellow is a transcript of Saakashvili's statement:

The government has carried out very painful, but very important structural reforms.

We should not talk to people in terms of numbers, telling them of our [economy] growth with this or that figure, or that huge investment is coming, etc. This is very important, but we should translate this for every family so that they understand what it means on an individual level. We shouldn't just translate it, but we should also demonstrate it to them much more effectively than we have done in the past.

So we should engage in dialogue with everyone. I am meeting all the time with various public groups… The absolute majority of people understands ongoing processes very well.

Dialogue [with society] should be a continual process, not only for the president, but for the prime minister as well. So I advise you to spend more time talking to people after your nomination has been approved. Dialogue with Parliament is very good, but dialogue should be with separate groups of society as well… and of course with the many millions of Georgians living abroad.

Employment programs and the protection of socially vulnerable people is the right course, but it must be done in consultation with the people. We should be very concrete with people and very, very open. There should be zero distance between the government and people… We should show that we are in direct dialogue with them.

After the [January 5 presidential] elections you'll have a mandate to revise the current composition of the cabinet and refresh the cabinet based on necessity and new circumstances – we may see some new things within the next two months.